Capturing the spirit and psyche of the world's greatest city.
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Monday, November 11, 2013

On the streets where we lived

Legendary New York writer Roger Rosenblatt recently published a memoir, and appeared on WNYC radio talking about, his childhood in NYC.

For anyone who ever grew up somewhere and moved away -- even if it was just to another neighborhood -- it's a strange experience coming back to the streets of your youth. You get a weird sensation of nostalgia tinged with displacement. You remember the buildings and stores and other identifying markers of the neighborhood that used to be there but are no longer. And you see those things that still are there, remembering your youth and earlier times, and you wonder how they survived and if they will continue to do so.

In NYC, longing for the past and being excited for the future go hand-in-hand. And it begins on the streets where we grew up and lived and live today, the future and past existing all at once.